Appalling and applauded

The 55-episode drama is China's latest effort to tap into pop culture to showcase its resolution and achievements in the extensive corruption crackdown that Xi launched when he came into power in 2012.

Viewers are alternately appalled by and applauding scenes of a sort rarely seen in China: a corrupt Party cadre kneeling and weeping for pardon when mounds of banknotes hidden in his secret villa are uncovered by the protagonist, a competent young prosecutor; a corrupt local judge caught in bed with a blonde foreign prostitute, paid for by a businesswoman.

Political product

Such high-level dirt has been the source of much gossip in China, but has never been so vividly been depicted.

The trailer of In The Name of the People.

China's cultural production is highly controlled and heavily censored. The Party's omnipotent media watchdog, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) dictates what Chinese audiences are to watch.

In the Name of the People has made it onto screens because it's more on a political mission than a market-driven cultural product. The show is commissioned and financed by China's national prosecutor's office, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, at the cost of 120 million yuan (US$17.4 million), which is twice the average of other locally-produced TV shows.

A public official from the Supreme People's Procuratorate told Chinese media they were given instructions from the media watchdog to promote "positive energy" by showcasing the resolution of China's anti-corruption campaign, rather than the scale of corruption in the country.

Anti-graft dramas

Entrusted with this political mission, leading actors in the show have proven only too eager to pass on the "positive energy": they have overacted, essentially ruining the show in artistic terms according to some critics on social media.

One of the first episodes - seen over 350 million times - featured a corrupt local chief with a blonde prostitute.Quartz

But this kind of defect hasn't stopped excited viewers from watching the show for its political main theme, which is a rarity in China in recent years. A decade ago, anti-graft dramas were common, but in 2004 they were banned by the authorities for being "low quality".

Now, the government has opted for entertaining television dramas aimed at a mass audience. Apart from the current hit, 11 additional primetime dramas about China's corruption sweep are expected to hit screens in millions of households later this year.

Perhaps others watch it in the hope of learning how to survive political power struggles. And the whole nation seems to be following the show to catch up on trending topics of national relevance, both online and offline.

But public discussion about the drama appears to be herded towards the government's preferred direction: positive. On Zhihu, a Quora-like knowledge-sharing Chinese website, which has more than 20 million users, of 169 answers in the thread "how to comment on In the Name of the People", 145 answers have been removed. Most were taken down for being "politically sensitive" according to the website.

The show is unprecedented in China because it tackles the delicate matter of official corruption. But what and how much is revealed on the show are dictated not by viewer interest or the market.

The show's title echoes the Party's official rhetoric of "serving the people". Unsurprisingly, this has been a decades-long catchcry in media narratives, which are themselves told to "serve the party".